Harvest Festival-September 23rd, 2017 3-6 pm

All MPCS families are invited to join in the creativity, health, reverence, and community. There is no cost to participate or enjoy a meal.

The Harvest Festival is a joyful community gathering that brings MPCS families together to celebrate autumn and the abundant gifts of the harvest. This treasured, family-friendly festival has activities for all ages, including:

shooting stars

shield making

apple pressing

music

feasting on delicious foods

roasting marshmallows

The highlight of the festival is a shared meal that features nutritious, homemade warm chili, bread, and pies.

The Season of Autumn at MPCS

by Kelly Morrow

Each year, as we return to school in August, we know that summer is soon coming to an end and the fruits of nature ripen in this harvest season. The sunlight decreases, the nights lengthen, and we endeavor to keep our inner light burning, moving toward the darkness of winter. During this season, a picture of the archangel Michael who battles the evil dragon arises. This archetype has appeared in mythology for many years. Ancient Hindu texts describe Indra slaying a dragon while ancient Babylonians told of Marduk who slayed Tiamat. The archetype is of one who overcomes or transforms evil through moral courage in action.

We, as human beings, have the opportunity to rise to this call in our current times to overcome our own inner dragons that may manifest at this time of year as fear, anxiety, or a loss of ease. With this Michaelic impulse, we can move forward with this inner strength and initiative to bring about new and courageous ways of thinking and living in our communities.

In this season of autumn, we are reminded of this task, large and small. We not only can overcome our own fear and inactivity as human beings, but we can seek to honor the courage and initiative that we see every day in individuals; to have interest in what others bring as gifts into the world and to encourage each other to move toward our full potential as human beings. In so doing, we can bring transformation in the world. In our current time, this becomes not only a celebration of a season, but an urgent call, seeking from each of us to find the good and the true in all of us, encouraging it to grow and flourish.

In our school, we carry this impulse and mood into the classroom in the season of autumn. The children may sing songs of ones who overcome the dragon. They may hear biographical stories of Michaelic Figures from history or mythology. They may engage in physical work of the will that helps to bring good to our campus and community. We strive to inspire the students with stories, old and new, of human courage, initiative, and responsible action.

We carry this mood forward and come together in celebration of autumn at our Harvest Festival, which, in turn, inspires us to move out into the world beyond our community with this initiative.